


Kind and Wise

by LikeASwitchInHeat



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Angst, Hopeful Ending, Jealous Rhett McLaughlin, M/M, Pining Rhett McLaughlin, Secret Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:21:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24164278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LikeASwitchInHeat/pseuds/LikeASwitchInHeat
Summary: Link has been seeing somebody, and asks Rhett to make an effort to get to know him over dinner. Between the unusual person, and Rhett’s own undisclosed feelings - he is finding this favor difficult to follow through with.
Relationships: Damnyell/Link Neal, Rhett McLaughlin/Link Neal
Comments: 14
Kudos: 38
Collections: Good Mythical Self-Isolation





	Kind and Wise

**Author's Note:**

> **Week 2 Prompt** : Damnyell and Rhett finally meet 🤯

Rhett couldn’t believe he had let it come to this.

But there was no way he could have said “No” to Link at this point. Not when he had so sincerely come to him and asked, in earnest, for Rhett to meet with this guy. Claimed that he was important to him.

What could he say that wouldn’t make it seem like he didn’t want Link to be happy? Or let Link know how deeply it hurt for Link to be seeking his happiness in someone else. 

Which brought Rhett back to his original question of how he himself had let it come to this. He’d dropped the ball on trying to move things forward with Link, and now Link was moving forward without him. And now Rhett was sitting alone at a restaurant, waiting for this new guy to show up and have dinner with him.

Rhett hoped that his beard at least  _ partially  _ obscured his sneer as he felt it tugging at his lip as the man entered the restaurant. The dude looked wild-eyed and disheveled. How did Link think he was compatible with someone like this? Link was so neat, and put together.

“Hello,” the man said, voice soft with a rather flat affect.

“Hey,” Rhett said, extending his hand, and inflecting false excitement into his greeting. He may not have been genuinely enthused. But he wasn’t going to screw anything up for Link. He was gonna put his best foot forward. 

Mr Disheveled stared at Rhett’s hand like his extension of it had been a foreign gesture. Rhett awkwardly withdrew his hand and smoothed it back at his side. 

“Uh, thanks for meeting me here.”

“Of course. Link thought it would be fun for us to meet one another. And I do like to have fun.”

“Right… Fun…”  _ Sure _ , Rhett thought.  _ This guy seems like tons of fun. A real barrel of laughs. _ “I guess we haven’t formally met one another. I’m Rhett.”

“My name is Damnyell.”

“It’s, uh… nice to meet you, Damnyell.”

“Damnyell. Like Daniel, but with an ‘m’.”

“Okay…” Rhett was pretty sure he had said it correctly. “ _ Damnyell. _ ”

“Or as Link likes to say, like Samuel with a ‘D’.”

“Got it.” Rhett did not like to think about them having little inside jokes. It made his stomach turn. He was also getting frustrated with Damnyell insinuating that he was mispronouncing his name when he was positive that he was getting it right. It wasn’t that dang difficult.

“And this is Richard,” Damnyell added matter-of-factly, casually gesturing toward the doglike entity sitting atop Damnyell’s head. “He likes to have fun, too.” 

“Great. Hello, Richard.”

Silence.

“Richard is not very language-oriented. We share a connection to a part of my brain. But that part is not integrally involved with speech processing.”

“Oh,” Rhett said dumbly. “Well,” he cleared his throat uncomfortably. “I’m glad he can join us regardless of what he is or isn’t able to bring to the conversation.”

“You are very kind, Rhett. I can see why Link would elect you as Best Friend.”

“That what he called me?”

“He said you are a good friend of his, but I think it is clear that you are more than good. You are Best.” 

Rhett felt himself blush at the strange compliment. He also felt himself feeling inexplicably endeared toward Damnyell. There was something innocent about him in a way that was somewhat childlike, but could never be mistaken as unintelligent. He also didn’t seem to have room for tact, or beating around the bush. And once you got past the awkwardness, which Rhett was beginning to interpret as more his own social clumsiness in anticipating a lot of conversational filler, and being caught off guard when he didn’t receive it. But Rhett found himself easing into a somewhat comfortable rhythm with Damnyell. 

“Would you and Richard please sit down?”

Damnyell stiffly took a seat across from Rhett. 

Rhett’s second hand social discomfort resurfaced briefly as they interacted with the server to place their orders. But Rhett was also acutely aware that that was his own problem, and that Damnyell wasn’t doing anything  _ wrong _ . He was just being himself. 

_ Just yourself be, if weird is you. _ He could hear Link’s voice in the backseat of his mind. 

Maybe Rhett could see what Link saw in this childlike and ‘weird’ person.

“So, Damnyell. Tell me about how you and Link met. I think I know the broad strokes, but I’d love to get your perspective on it.”

“Broad strokes? Did Link describe the origins of our relationship through interpretive painting. If this is the case, I would love to see it.”

“Uhhh, no. I… misspoke. But, please, tell me your version of the… origin story?”

“I had been a fan of GMM. I understand why people like the show. I had even visited the set before, and watched you from afar at events like vidcon.”

“Oh wow,” Rhett tried not to show how creepy that sounded. “So you were a pretty big fan to have sought all that… access.”

“I did not attend vidcon as a fan. And I visited MythEnt for professional reasons as well. I have worked with a colleague of yours. Randy. Of the Cotton Candy Randies? I have my own show, you know.  _ Fun Times with Damnyell. _ ”

Rhett’s head was beginning to spin. “I… did not know that. That’s, uh…. Very cool.”

“We have other things in common, aside from career choice, and close relationships with Link. Did you know that I play the guitar?”

“I think I saw that… maybe when you guest hosted  _ Good Mythical More  _ once?”

“Yes, I played the guitar for Link. And for the show. I still play for him often. Not for the show. Privately.”

“Okay, okay. I get it.”

As warmly as Rhett was beginning to feel toward Damnyell, the idea of him serenading  _ his  _ Link with guitar skills re-stoked the cold flames of jealousy in his gut again. In no uncertain terms, that should be him! He should be the one plucking strings for Link in private.

“I came to guest host the show originally when you had taken a couple of days off, for mental health reasons I believe? Link had said that you were feeling burnt out. Mental health is so important. You are very wise, Rhett. Wise and kind. Worth of Best Friend status.”

Rhett’s inner turmoil boiled over. It hadn’t been work burning Rhett out, for one. He remembered well, he had been struggling with his feelings for Link. It was becoming impossible to be around him so much with how strongly he was yearning. And he just couldn’t risk their friendship, their business. If he was wrong, if he put himself out there like that - he could destroy their lives and livelihoods. It felt dramatic, romanticized and over-the-top to think of it that way, but it was a very realistic possible outcome, if Link did not feel the same way. Over 35 years of friendship, and their entire professional lives together. He could not risk burning all of that down, because he had caught irreversible feelings. 

So he hadn’t made a move.

And Link had moved forward without him.

It felt like an inevitable conclusion, but Rhett didn’t like it any better for that.

“I enjoyed guest hosting on your show. But the real connection between myself and Link. Well, on an emotional level. Not like me and Richard.”

“I get it…” Rhett said, not successfully hiding all of his sulkiness from his tone.

“The real connection was made during the shooting of the Mythical Pomade commercial. Link and I discovered that we both wanted the same thing.”

“Which is?” 

“To be loved. Technically speaking, I concluded that we could love one another. We both were in need, and had love to give. Though, I suppose this is true of all beings. But Link did agree, that maybe he could help me with that.”

Rhett was beginning to feel a new anger brewing. One not to do directly with envy. Maybe it was simply an aspect of the way that Damnyell spoke, but it almost sounded like it didn’t matter to Damnyell that Link be the person that helped him feel loved? Was like just a placeholder for that role to him? Had they truly formed a connection? Why did it feel like… a gentleman’s agreement? It wasn’t very romantic. And sure, not every partnership needed romance, but Rhett knew Link. Link would want that. And Link deserved to get what he wanted out of life and love. 

Surely Link wasn’t that desperate. He was a hell of a catch. 

Rhett would have loved to have caught him himself.

And he was feeling more and more like he should have told Link that…

“While we were shooting the commercial,” Damnyell continued, “I began to have what Link explained was a mild panic attack. He helped to calm me down, and convince me that I was doing my best. He is nearly as kind and wise as his Best Friend.”

The thought of Link calming someone else down seemed rich. And Rhett could feel his jealousy making him bitter. 

“Are you feeling okay, Rhett? The food has not arrived yet, but you look like you have chewed on something sour.”

Rhett felt himself beginning to shake. 

“I’m just not sure if Link was on the right track with having us meet.”

“Track? I’m afraid I don’t have a driver’s license.”

Rhett lashed out, verbally. “I’m saying it was a bad idea, damn it.  _ Damn _ yell.”

“Oh, I see. Well, that is not our kind Link’s fault. I was the one that wanted to meet you.”

“What? I thought… I thought Link wanted us to meet, like… I dunno,” Rhett started to mumble a little in his uncertainty. “I thought that since you were becoming such an important person in his life, like. Maybe y’all were about to take some sort of next step or something?”

“I don’t believe so. Perhaps you are more kind, and less wise than I had judged.”

The server set their plates down before them, and Rhett stared at Damnyell in speechlessness .

“I do not think that Link and I can love each other in any deeper capacity than the dear friends that we have become. I do not desire that type of love. And I believe that Link desires it from someone else. Rhett, kind Best Friend of Link’s. Do you not see how much he longs for you?”

Damnyell stared blankly into Rhett’s eyes, studying him momentarily for any sort of reaction. Rhett was guarded with what he was willing to give him. 

“Did he say that?”

“He didn’t have to.”

“Then how can you know?”

“How can you not? Rhett, I am not an emotionally mature person, and the nuances of love and friendship are not easy for me to understand. But even one as naive as me can see the love that man holds for you. Are you not willing to receive such a gift?”

He held Rhett’s gaze for a moment more before Richard dove snout-first into the plate of spaghetti, making the most savage and animalistic sounds of devouring that Rhett was sure that restaurant had ever endured. 

None of the servers or other patrons seemed to notice. Rhett himself hardly noticed. His mind was growing fuzzy and he felt like he was going to faint, when suddenly he heard an alarm going off in the distance. 

Rhett woke up feeling groggy and disoriented. He silenced his alarm on his phone, and immediately selected Link’s contact info from his Favorites list. He cleared the sleep from his voice as the phone rang. 

“Heyyyyo,” Link answered. And Rhett rolled his eyes affectionately at the corny greeting. “I’m not running late am I?”

“Nah, kind of the opposite. Would you mind us going in a little late today?”

“We playin hooky?”

Rhett grinned. “Kinda? Can we meet for breakfast? There’s something I’ve been meaning to discuss. And I really don’t think it should wait any longer.”


End file.
